Written communication plays an integral role in modern social, economic, and cultural life. Writing facilitates the transfer and preservation of information and ideas. However, without direct access to facial expression, body language, and voice inflection, the potential for misunderstanding written communications is considerable.
The Internet culture has developed emoticons as a way to compensate for some of the limitations of written communication. The term “emoticon” is shorthand for “emotive icon.” Emoticons are typically comprised of a sequence of characters and symbols that connote some emotional state. Emoticons commonly appear in email, chat, text messaging, and other forms of written, electronic communication to express moods or tone in ways that text alone cannot. For example, ‘:-)’ is frequently used to indicate pleasure, ‘:-(’ displeasure. Typically, users manually input a sequence of characters and symbols to construct an emoticon. In many applications, the sequence is automatically converted into a graphic. The following provides an example of currently used emoticons, and the key strokes involved in their input.
Emoticon:Description::-) or :)Smile;-) or ;)Wink:-D or :DBig smile:-)) or :))Very happy:0)Big nose smiley|-)Cool!>:-) or >:)Evil grin>;-> or >;>Evil grin with a wink:-X or :XMy lips are sealed}:-) or }:)Devilish:-{circumflex over ( )}) or :{circumflex over ( )})Tongue in cheek:-P or :PSticking out tongue:-& or :&Tongue tied:opPuppy face0:-) or 0:)Saint:-)8 or :)8Happy wearing a bow tie8-) or 8)Happy with glasses#-)I partied all night%-) or %)Drunk:-###.. or :###..Being sick%-( or %(Confused:-0 or :0Shocked:-o or :oSurprised:-| or :|Indecision:'-( or :'(Crying:'-) or :')Crying of happiness:-( or :(Sad
Increased access to written communications on mobile devices has brought emoticons to the wireless world. Given the compact nature of the typical mobile device, however, inputting emoticons on a mobile device can be a cumbersome and time-consuming process. This problem is further exacerbated as the base of commonly used emoticons grows to include new emoticons, which are often built from increasingly long and complex strings of characters and symbols.
In the drawings, the same reference numbers identify identical or substantially similar elements or acts. To facilitate the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g., element 204 is first introduced and discussed with respect to FIG. 2).